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Discontinued Products


Ben Schuey

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Posted

Hi,

I've been noticing over a few years that heaps of locos, rollingstock and other products get discontinued and stop being manufactured. The sad thing is that some products are very nice runners or have great detail.

If I was going to bring anything back to stock, it would have to be the GWR 14XX Class. I love the look and how it works so well with scenic branchlines.

What product would you bring back to life, and why?

Thanks, Ben

Posted

The 14XX is unlikely to come back "Main Range", as there is a "new kid on the block" coming...

 

But maybe at a more reasonable price point in "Railroad"?

Fare enough, but it would be nice to have it back.

Posted

There are still a lot out there.

 

And there is likely to be a surge of models onto the "used" market soon.... ;)

 

I have some original Airfix versions.

 

The loco was made by Airfix / GMR (Great Model Railways), Mainline, Dapol, and Hornby.....

Posted

2 of our 14XX Locos....

 

/media/tinymce_upload/d62f27d0381d182f093b605102ed27aa.JPG-resized.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/1a879e9b3ff6053997019938b2dc6803.JPG-resized.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/f878e4439c692117e6e06571a4366fb2.JPG-resized.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/77bda50aa735b393a703ee2ef786cec1.JPG-resized.jpg

Posted

It would be better with 'proper' DCC sound, not TTS.

In my opinion, for what it is not worth, TTS is only good for diesels, where you cannot see that sounds an motion do not match up.

Posted

On DCC Sound Steam Locos...

 

What is "wrong" is the total lack of smoke and steam....

 

Sounds of escaping steam and nothing to see!

 

I suppose Diesels need smoke effects too..... ;)

 

On 14XX....Yes, Hattons are having made (DJ Models) the "new kid on the block" which is coming... ;)

Posted

In the US, "puffing" smoke (timed to the "chuffs") along with sound is becoming standard fare! The fan-driven smoke units look VERY realistic, and somehow they've made a few drops of smoke fluid last an incredibly long time. Also, the fan pushes the steam/smoke from the stack, so nothing settles on the top of the loco, as it did in the "old days". They even have smoke fluit that smells good!!Welcome to modern technology....Clever, those Celestials..........

Posted

 Hi

Don't no what all the fuss is about, I have a Triang Hornby Flying Scotsman with Chuff Chuff sound, Glowing Fire Box and Syncrosmoke unit from the 1970's

I also have a Triang Hornby Hall, B12 with noise and several others with glow fire boxes and at least a dozen with working syncosmoke units as well as the original suthe smoke units

Plus the Mainline Royal Scot with electronic steam sound

Posted

 Hi

Don't no what all the fuss is about, I have a Triang Hornby Flying Scotsman with Chuff Chuff sound, Glowing Fire Box and Syncrosmoke unit from the 1970's

I also have a Triang Hornby Hall, B12 with noise and several others with glow fire boxes and at least a dozen with working syncosmoke units as well as the original suthe smoke units

Plus the Mainline Royal Scot with electronic steam sound

Tri-ang Railways introduced Seuth Smoke Units in 1961.

 

After viewing a layout in Ireland, the maker wanted a fee to show how his smoking locos worked.

 

The Tri-ang people declined, and worked out their own method.

 

This was called Synkro-Smoke (Later standradised as Synchrosmoke.).

 

A piston driven by a gear wheel meshing on the top of the Loco Motor Worm pushed air through a box, that contained an electric heating element sitting on some "wadding" soaked in a light "Smoke" Oil.

 

The smoke was expelled from the chimney in time with the driving wheel revolutions.

 

Introduced in 1964, this survived for a long time....being replaced in the 1990s by a plastic box with a heating element, but no synchronisation...and the boxes could melt!

 

The Glowing Firebox was a 1960s thing. A bulb in a box with a yellow/orange plastic mask over one end, situated behind the firehole door, which was a hole...

Connected in parrallel with the motor, th efaster the loco went, the brighter the glow.

 

The original Tri-ang Hornby M7 0-4-4 Tank Loco, and the later "Flying Scotsman" were the first.

 

A similar system re-apperaed in the 1990s 8f 2-8-0 and the GWR 2800 2-8-0 Locos, which shared the chassis....some also had the plastic smoke unit I think....

 

Exhaust Steam Sound was a 1970s invention.

 

A scraper on the tender rear axle rubbed on a brass strip that was coated with a sandy paste.

The vibrations were conveyed to a plastic diaphram on a plastic sound box in the tender.

 

The resultant noise is actually not too bad!

 

Mainline also did a Diesel Sound....but I have not had any experience with these units...

Posted

Hi

The Mainline Royal Scot engine had a sound unit that made a steam hissing sound in the tender powered by a PP9 battery, on the rear tender axel there is a metal circlip that is on 3/4 of the circumferance of the axel, a metal strip rubs against the circlip. when in contact metal on metal the steam sound is generated, including when stationary, when the axel rotates and the metal strip hits plastic the hissing stops so you get a beat.

It is a realistic sound as the engine increases spead, decreasing speed and when running at speed because you get the cut off effect. It could be a useful unit to use in the railroad range as a economic sound unit. 

Posted

2 of our 14XX Locos....

 

/media/tinymce_upload/d62f27d0381d182f093b605102ed27aa.JPG-resized.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/1a879e9b3ff6053997019938b2dc6803.JPG-resized.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/f878e4439c692117e6e06571a4366fb2.JPG-resized.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/77bda50aa735b393a703ee2ef786cec1.JPG-resized.jpg

Is the GWR Livery loco a good runner?

 

Posted

 RE: 14XX Locos from Ffrwd Locks.

Is the GWR Livery loco a good runner?

Both these locos are old Aifix/ GMR models.

Both the locos run OK....but I need to sort out the driving wheels, as the loco is meant to have traction tyres on the rear drivers, but these are not needed for my uses....and can cause running problems....

 

I intend to change the grooved wheel tyres for plain ones, from spare front Driving Wheels....

 

All the pick-ups have been overhauled....little plungers. They can get sticky over time, and fail to make contact with the wheels....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

Posted

I've owned Airfix, Dapol and Hornby 14xx tanks, the latter two from new, and none of them were good runners.  The traction tyres were, as Sarah mentioned, a bit unnecessary since most people just used them to pull a single autocoach.  I had an Airfix model that actually ran more smoothly without the traction tyres, as it then had six wheel electrical pick-up.  Another Airfix model was fine on the straight, but struggled around 2nd or 3rd radius curves - the fixed wheelbase on this loco is relatively long.  One final problem - most of the weight (the electric motor) is over the rear unpowered wheels, so the whole loco is a bit unbalanced, and my Hornby and Dapol ones tend to rock a bit.  I only have the Dapol one left now, and it is permanently coupled to an autocoach which has pickups on all 8 wheels, so at least the loco doesn't ever stall.  It's speed can be nicely controlled but the actual loco rocks and waddles a bit as it goes along!

Posted

Hi Sarah again,did you see the "trains on film-The titfield thunderbolt"train pack that Hornby produced a year or so ago?,i saw one in a shop recently and very nearly bought it.

I did notice this set...

 

The intersting thing is that the loco seems to have the "G W R" lettering "painted out"....so Early BR style?

Posted

  I would be happy with the 14XX if it didn't have the traction tyre as this has been nothing but trouble! However, I'd like to see it back with an improved chassis since I've 3D printed some GWR 517 bodies for the chassis, though I've still yet to finish them off./media/tinymce_upload/df873b1884c749157407c5db3c21babc.jpg

Posted

Hi Sarah again,did you see the "trains on film-The titfield thunderbolt"train pack that Hornby produced a year or so ago?,i saw one in a shop recently and very nearly bought it.

I did notice this set...

 

The intersting thing is that the loco seems to have the "G W R" lettering "painted out"....so Early BR style?

The Titfield thunderbolt was made post nationalization in the late 50s on the then recently closed Limply Stoke - Camerton line. I once considered modelling Monkton Coombe station (Titfield) before I got the narrow gauge bug and moved my interests to the welsh Marches.

Posted

Nice model.

I suppose the rear wheels had beaings (part of the finishing off still to do)..inside or outside?

 

Most certainly different from the 48XX/ 14XX...

Hi Sarah,

 

There were quite a few variations to the 517s. I think most originally had inside bearings, though many were rebuilt with outside ones like the 14XX. The loco I am trying to model is 1473 Fair Rosamund which was the former Woodstock branch loco. this was built in May 1883 at the GWRs Wolverhampton Works and withdrawn in the mid 1930s (need to look it up) which retained its inside bearings

http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0229/4449/products/1473_fair_rosa_belpaire_1024x1024.jpg?v=1445264445

Just to confuse things a large number of the 517s were numbered in the 14XX series, while the Collett Auto tanks caried the 48XX numberplates at that time. I think the Collett's were changed to 14XX when some 28XX goods locos were converted to Oil burners (and took the 48XX plates)

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